Passport ID chips

HoustonChronicle reported A government plan to embed U.S. passports with radio-frequency chips starting this summer is meeting resistance from travel and privacy groups who say the technology is untested and could create a security risk for travelers. Tembedded chips are designed to make passports work more like employee ID cards that can be passed over an electronic reader to gain access to a building.

State Department officials said the new technology, commonly known as radio frequency identification, would allow customs agents to quickly process passengers at airports and borders. The passports are to be issued to diplomats starting in August, and then the program would expand to applicants for new passports in the next year. State Department officials said the chips are part of a global effort to prevent passport fraud.

Each chip will contain a digital record of all information printed on the passport, including the holder's name and document number. The chip will also contain the passport holder's photograph, enhanced by facial recognition technology. That way, even if the paper passport is altered, customs agents would be able to compare the information on the chip with the person presenting it.

Groups representing travel-related businesses and privacy advocates say the high-tech chips would do more harm than good. Each chip has a built-in miniature antenna that uses radio waves to transmit information to a machine reader. Critics contend terrorists or thieves could use hand-held chip readers to identify U.S. citizens, even on a crowded street, anywhere they travel. Such readers are available for $500 to several thousand dollars, depending on the level of sophistication. "If you're walking around in Beirut, it would be well worth al-Qaida's money to use one of these readers to pick out the Americans from the Swedes without any problem," said Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union's technology and liberty program.

I doubt if that is the ACLU's real problem with them. I am not that wild about American Citizens carrying them, but I would really like to see non residents entering the US having to carry one, with an indication of the length of their Visa.